TradesLandscapers

Run a Landscaping Business That Pays You ProperlyStill on the excavator at five, still quoting sloping blocks at nine. That is a business running you.

This is the business side of landscaping, written for the owner. Licences, charge-out rates, award wages, quoting design and construct work, and building a crew that can run a site without you. Practical training for Australian and New Zealand landscaping businesses, and Greg Allan for the owners he takes on.

Have a chat with Greg

A painted scene of a landscaping crew screeding a bed of sand along a rail, stacked pavers waiting beside them

The week this is about

Running A Landscaping Business Looks Like This.

You quoted the block flat and it was not

The plan looked simple until the bobcat could not get down the side, the fall was worse than it measured, and two days went on barrowing road base by hand. You wear it, because the price was already signed.

Spring buries you, winter empties the account

From August the phone does not stop and you are turning work away. By June the builds have dried up, the maintenance round barely covers wages, and you are paying machine hire on jobs you took just to keep the crew busy.

Every site still needs you standing on it

The set out, the levels, the plant order, the tip run, the client who wants the wall shifted after it is pegged. Nobody else on the crew can make those calls, so you cannot quote, cannot invoice, and cannot take a Friday off.

Another year of this and you are a very good landscaper with a business that cannot run, cannot sell, and cannot give you a week off without losing money.

A trade business owner working alone at the kitchen table late at night, laptop open and paperwork spread across the table, work boots and tool bag by the door

How we help

Seven Ways We Help Landscapers.

Every one of these is a way landscaping business owners get out from under the business and start running it properly. Start wherever it hurts most.

Training

Landscaper Business Training

Structured training that turns what landscapers know on the tools into a business that runs properly.

Coaching

Landscaper Business Coaching

Greg Allan in your corner, holding landscapers to the plan. By application.

Systems

Landscaper Business Systems

The documented process that lets the work happen properly when landscapers are not standing there.

The free app

Landscaper Business App

Lessons, tools and a room full of other owners, free for landscapers with an active ABN.

Marketing and leads

Landscaper Business Marketing

How landscapers get the phone ringing with the jobs worth having, not just the cheap ones.

Pricing and profit

Landscaper Business Pricing

The number landscapers should actually be charging, worked out properly rather than guessed.

Hiring and team

Landscaper Business Hiring

How landscapers build a crew that does it right without being watched.

A trade business owner watching his child play sport on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand and phone face down — Nights and weekends back

A trade business owner and his partner in the kitchen looking at a tablet showing the numbers going up — Work that actually pays

A trade business owner shaking hands with a new apprentice in the work yard — A good hire who stays

A trade business owner standing calmly in the yard while his crew load two utes behind him — Out of the middle of everything

Worth knowing

Two Things Every Landscaper Running A Business Should Know.

Structural landscaping triggers a licence at a different point in each state: $3,300 in Queensland, $5,000 in New South Wales and $10,000 in Victoria.

Source: QBCC, NSW Fair Trading and the Victorian Building Authority

Retaining walls are the trade's regulatory hotspot: roughly 1 metre triggers council approval, while engineering under AS 4678 is commonly triggered from 800mm.

Source: NCC Part 3.1.2 Earth Retaining Structures, and AS 4678 Earth Retaining Structures

Why you get me

I built the coaching company everyone else runs. Then I took it apart.

Most coaching companies work the same way. You enquire, you get a salesperson. You sign up, you get a coach who has never run a trade business.

I know, because I built one. I grew the Academy to 35 staff, a CEO and 15 coaches. It ran without me.

And I hated it. The bigger it got, the further I was from the owners I started it for.

What gets me up in the morning is getting under the hood of a trade business and helping the owner hit their goals in the least time possible.

So I restructured the whole thing.

When you enquire, you speak to me. If you are accepted into the Academy, you work with me. Directly.

And with agentic AI, the results come sooner than most owners can imagine.

Places are limited. I only take on owners who are committed and ready to do the work.

Greg Allan mid-explanation with his hands open, talking to a trade business owner across a desk

Who you will be talking to

I built Response Electricians in Perth into a 30+ staff business with more than 1,950+ five-star reviews.

A general manager runs it day to day. I live in Byron Bay.

I have trained 9,000+ trade business owners across Australia and New Zealand.

What AI actually changes

The old way. The new way.

Illustration: a trade business owner standing over three office staff buried in paperwork at night. — The old way
More customers meant more people doing your computer work, and you paying for all of it.

Illustration: a tradesman shaking hands with a homeowner in her driveway, his phone showing jobs quoted and invoiced. — The new way
You stay with your customers and your team. Agents run the office your way.

The old way

Grow, then hire people to do the computer work.

Every new customer brought more quoting, invoicing, chasing, scheduling and reporting.

So you hired people to do it. Office staff, bookkeepers, admin.

None of it is billable, and every hire costs wages, sick leave and another person to manage.

Profit and time only grew as fast as you could add people.

The new way

Keep the human work. Give everything else to agents.

Your people do what only people can do: looking after customers and leading the team.

Everything else goes to agents that do it your way, instantly, any time it is needed.

No sick leave. No capacity problems. They scale as far as the business does.

So the only people you add are the ones facing your customers and your team.

A human-centred business that runs on systems you build in minutes. Nobody still running the old way can compete with it.

9,000+tradies trained4.9★Google rating4.9★App Store rating

Questions

Landscapers Ask Us These.

Do I need a licence to run a landscaping business in Australia?

It depends on the state and the value of the structural work. Queensland licenses structural landscaping through the QBCC from $3,300, New South Wales through Fair Trading from $5,000, and Victoria requires registration from $10,000. Western Australia and South Australia run builder registration regimes instead. Get the licence right before you quote, then price the work to cover the compliance it carries.

How high can a retaining wall be before it needs approval and an engineer?

Around 1 metre is the common council approval trigger in Australia, and engineering under AS 4678 typically kicks in from about 800mm, which is why the two get confused on site. In New Zealand, retaining walls are consent exempt up to 1.5 metres depth of ground with no surcharge. Check your council, then quote the engineering and the approval as line items, not as goodwill.

What award covers my landscaping staff and what do I pay an apprentice?

The Gardening and Landscaping Services Award MA000101 covers the trade in Australia. Fair Work refreshes the pay guide each 1 July, so last year's rates are not a defence. An adult apprentice starts at 80% of the Level 4 rate in year one, casuals carry a 25% loading, and the award also sets tool and vehicle allowances. Budget the crew off the current pay guide, not off memory.

Do landscapers have to lodge a TPAR with the ATO?

If you pay subcontractors for building and construction services, yes. The ATO lists landscaping inside the building and construction scope for the Taxable Payments Annual Report, so the excavation, paving and retaining crews you pay have to be reported. Keep subbie payments coded properly through the year and the lodgement takes minutes instead of a weekend.

Other trades

See all twelve trades

A painted scene of a trade business owner home before dark, sitting on the tray of his ute while his son runs to meet him

Have a Chat With Greg About Your Business.